Octavian Voegele Wins ANZPT Adelaide

Posted at 02:13 2011-02-07

It was only twelve months ago, that Octavian Voegele found himself walking away from the 2010 ANZPT Adelaide final table, with the chance of the trophy within arms length, devastatingly close, yet so far away. But it wasn’t so far anymore, as Voegele found himself in a familiar scenario, taking his place on the 2011 ANZPT Adelaide Main Event final table. Given a second chance, the Australian-based Austrian was determined to seal the deal and improve on his third-place score from the previous year and secure the $148,900 lion’s share.

25-year old Voegele is no stranger to big scores in the poker world, with a respectable resume both online and live. Last year’s third place ANZPT Adelaide Main Event added $59,600 to his bankroll, but the biggest boost would come from the virtual felt highlighted by a 4th place finish in the PokerStars SCOOP-M Main Event for US$211,312. Now with an ANZPT championship to his name, Voegele has secured his place as one of the Australia’s most talented young players.

Voegele was chip leader heading into the final table this time around, being the only player to crack the magic million mark when play commenced earlier today. Voegele would take that lead and his previous experience as weapons in his arsenal to wreak havoc on the other eight finalists vying for a piece of ANZPT history. Fortunately, Voegele had position on promising young player, Jesse McKenzie, who was an equally aggressive presence on the table. McKenzie sat to Voegele’s direct right and started out second in chips, threatening Voegele’s chip lead all day.

Within the first hour of play, McKenzie five-bet his way into the chip lead. It wasn’t surprising, with McKenzie’s aggressive play resulting in his monster chip lead on Day 1a. The 26-year-old Sydneysider continued that strategy with some huge pots played on Day 3, including the biggest pot of the tournament against Jeff Chu which secured him a final table berth.

Voegele and McKenzie would see-saw the chip lead all afternoon, with some big pots exchanged between the two aggressors. McKenzie found a pivotal double up through Voegele with his QQ holding up against 99. With this hand McKenzie jumped to 2.15 million, pushing Voegele back to 1.45 million. With the chips stacked in front of him, McKenzie pushed even harder, with some creative aggression taking him near 3.5 million of the five million in play.

After the elimination of the first six players, Jesse McKenzie, Ian Parnell and Octavian Voegele were to be our podium finishers with McKenzie will in front. Staring at another third place finish as three-handed commenced, it was time for Voegele to make his move to re-write history. Play was relatively quick and the fortune was turned on McKenzie as he doubled up Parnell and Voegele in rapid succession. McKenzie held big cards in both showdowns, but AK could not improve against Parnell’s pocket tens, nor could AQ hold against Voegele’s KJ.

Big hands were being found everywhere, and when Parnell looked down at {As}{9h} it looked like a good place to ship, but wasn’t to be as Voegele snap-called with the timely pocket rockets. There was no miracle on the board and Parnell was eliminated in third place for $55,150.

Now with an almost 3:2 lead over Jesse McKenzie, Voegele could smell victory. The feeling was that it wasn’t going to be a lengthy heads-up battle with aggression outplaying aggression. It was almost over when McKenzie open-shoved the button with {As}{6h} finding a call from a dominant {Ad}{9s}. McKenzie hit the flop and the pair of sixes was good enough to survive.

With heads-up play being a tight, aggressive affair, the defining hand would see a limped pot on a flop of {6d}{9s}{4d}. Voegele bet out 50,000, McKenzie upped it to 150,000, Voegele re-popped to 400,000 before McKenzie moved all in. Voegele made the call with two pair, showing {6h}{4h}. McKenzie tabled {9h}{5d} for top pair and hopes of catching a nine, five or a runner-runner to stay alive. The {qd} turn and {jh} on the river would find none and render McKenzie the runner-up with $99,260 a sweetener for an outstanding run throughout the tournament.

Octavian Voegele had re-written history and the look on his face showed that victory was even more sweet after coming so close last year. The 2011 ANZPT Adelaide Main Event attracted a field of 253 players, which is a record field for tournament poker in South Australia, and bodes well for another year of fierce tournament poker around the capital cities of Australia as the PokerStars ANZPT hits the ground running. The next stop will return to Burswood Casino in Perth from March 23-27. Download PokerStars and qualify today!

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